Bill Gates is on a global lobbying campaign to press humanity to innovate their way out of climate change, making the transition to new forms of energy.

Gates believes that we could stimulate ingenuity to combat climate change by dramatically increasing spending on research and development. He believes that private investors should foot the bill. He has pledged to commit $2 billion himself.

Collectively, 28 private investors, including Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, have pledged their own money to help build private businesses based on public “green energy” research. Collectively, the 28 private participants are worth an estimated $350 billion. Developing new sources of energy requires very patient money. Because of this, Gates and his fellow billionaires will offer early-stage capital for technologies with long-term potential to generate clean energy.

Gates said on Monday that he is “optimistic that we can invent the tools we need” to fight climate change. He added that the investors are pledging $7 billion to develop such tools.